About Tzirel Soloveitchik

Second wife of Rav Yosef Dov: In 5598/1838, he married ( in Volozhin) Tzirel, the daughter of Rav Yitzchok Efron, a prominent talmid chacham from Volozhin.

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The First wife: One of the wealthy landowners of Bobruisk took Rav Yosef Dov as a son-in-law. This match was arranged at the behest of the bride's mother, who stemmed from an illustrious family of talmidei chachamim and immediately recognized Rav Yosef Dov's greatness.

Rav Yosef Dov and his wife were very happy together. However, their marriage was shattered after a jealous townsman spread a false rumor that since Rav Yosef Dov was not familiar with some of the Yom Tov Piyutim recited in Bobruisk, he was not a genuine Torah scholar. This poison seeped into the mind of Rav Yosef Dov's father-in-law, who then convinced his daughter to divorce Rav Yosef Dov. Seeing the mastery of halacha and the character refinement Rav Yosef Dov displayed while in the beis din, the father-in-law realized his mistake in breaking up the marriage and fainted. But it was too late.

Rav Yosef Dov's mother-in-law was very upset by this sorry turn of events and did everything in her power to prevent the divorce, but to no avail. Rav Yosef Dov appreciated her valiant efforts on his behalf, and before leaving Bobruisk, thanked her and asked her to take special care of his 1-year-old daughter. Instead of returning to Volozhin, where Czarist decrees restricted Torah learning, the brokenhearted Rav Yosef Dov went to Brody. When the decrees were revoked, he returned to Volozhin.,